The 1999 Mercury Mystique with the I4 has a transmision whine under acceleration cold or hot. The fluid looks brownish and this car has been neglected. The whine goes away when the car is at speed, but still.. normal shifting, when i keep my foot on the brake and put it in reverse, even after i feel what i *think* is engaging, after i let off the brake, i sometimes (not all the time) i then feel a hard *clunk* or *slam* as if it has engaged again? .. car then whines under acceleration, any speed. The whine goes away when the gas pedaul is not being pressed, cruise control works, no whine when the foot is off the gas.

Vehicle speed consistent, not RPM consistent.

Just took it to AAMCO and i dont even need to tll you what they said (AAMCO means "All Automatics Must Come out" and yes thats what they told me, it has to come out. Yay)

They also told me it "Doesnt have a pan or filter." Umm, WHATTTT!???

So, whats the diagnosis here. Car has just shy of 170,000 miles and was driven by two neglecting females that get drunk early, drive it on "E" for a month at a time or more, and drove it over to Galveston-area beach and drove it up on the sand and did some nice transmission neglect with wheels spinning in sand dunes so whats the deal with the car

Make sure the fluid is to the right level. You may want to do a trans pan drop (I've never seen a car without a pan) and check out how bad the crud is on the bottom of the pan. If it is really bad then just run it till the tranny dies then put in a new one if the car is worth it. BUT since they neglected the tranny I'm guessing the rest of the car is on borrowed time with that king of mileage.

The whine could be from the Transfer gears which are housed under the tin cover on the side of the tranny.They link the two shafts that are inside the trans together.GM FWD trannys used a chain,most everyone else used meshing gears.The sound might not cause any issues,but it indicates an unusual wear pattern between the gear teeth.

I had a 96, it does not have a pan or a filter. I drained and filled mine every year regardless of mileage with synthetic and it still failed at 149,000. Genetic, just a poor transmission.

You can probably get a rebuild in there fro 2500 but a lot of other factors to consider.

Well AAMCO quoted $1400. Maybe that is kind of a good price for this job, since to "check it out" they wanted $425 to get the AT out of the car. They diagnosed and said it is the "Gears in the transfer case" as NHGUY said (said it IS coming from the transmission) and that they didnt have a pan or filter.. i have to say didnt believe him but it seems that guy knows his stuff, he said "You are getting on the gear under acceleration that is when you hear the whine, then you are letting off the gear that is when you dont hear it, its something internal and we wont know until we get it out." He also advised AGAINST putting new fluid in there.) Hmmm.

Wondering if i should try to get some of the fluid out with an evacuator, or just leave it since the car runs ok aside from that weird double-slam when it goes into gear sometimes. (It looks brownish, the fluid. Level appears to be proper.) Unfortunately, this car was beat on a bit by the two drunk women that didnt care about the vehicle and drove it very very harshly (they knew it wasnt their car, and the previous owner who im getting it from, he and his wife went through a divorce. Clues, lol.)

Would you try to get SOME of the fluid out, not all? Or just wait until i can get AAMCO to rebuild? Id rather to "rebuild" not "used trans" thats equally as bad lol

This is the first car i have ever had with a while like this. My family had a 1996 Aerostar that had the whine too. They can live with it. I cant.

Yes that sounds like a CD4E transmission. It was shared with the 4 Cyl Mazda 626 and some earlier Ford Escapes. It was not quite enough tranny for the fairly heavy 626, it didn't have a real good cooling setup either. You may want to look into an aftermarket fluid cooler if you do have it rebuilt. Google Mazda 626 CD4E if you want to read up on them.

Change the fluid! It will help your reverse clunk by probably freeing up the valve body. Sounds like it's sheared way down. You may also want to try some "goo", I like the bar's leaks that looks like cherry grenadine. (They sell at walmart).

Why so little? The drain plug is very easy to take out. You can use a standard socket drive.

Ohh trust me it would have been switched out by now, but its not my car. The guy that has it is a little ornery. I still cant get a straight answer out of him if he put in Castrol Syntec (grade unknown) or Accel straight-30, "Non detergent" Oil. The guy is.. well he is a good guy but his car knowledge isnt all there, if at all. So, i just snuck to Walmart and put in a quart of Supertech High Mileage in the red bottle, unbeknownst to the owner.

What i notice so far is.. well it did zero as to the whine so there is definitly a transmission issue. However i notice less of a "Burning" smell, as the last two times the car was driven, there was a slight "burnt" smell when the car slowed and we got out. Adding the quart seemed to lessen the smell. (Its hot down here)

Now motor oil must wait, it is probably a bad oil for the car (straight 30, omg) and i cant change it either.

Whine could be related to valve body? Maybe there is still hope. I dont know...

I put the quart of High Mileage Supertech ATF (red quart bottle, XOM lubricant) in yesterday, the whole thing. No burnt smell, and the car felt a little better today driving. It still whines under acceleration. And yes, i added the fluid with the car RUNNING. The owner checks it with it off, and cold...................................................

I wonder if it would be as simple as "the fluid is old OR the level is low" and maybe it needs more, it felt better today there was no burning smell and it didnt *slam* into gear like it did yesterday.

Could it just need more fluid because the old stuff is so bad, or the level is low?

Like i said i literally need to sneak ATF in if i add more, because it is not my car.......................................

Hey, if he doesn't want to take advice, he has every right to kill his car with negligence.

I don't know how much I'd try to help someone who doesn't seem to want it.

I agree... but if i start using the car.. or want to sell it.. the guy seems TOTALLY fine letting it get so bad that AAMCO will rebuild it for him.

Then he tells me he doesnt want me to drive it faster than 60MPH. And why he doesnt drive his own car.. idk. Not sure what his deal is.

Im starting to think it is a simple "low on fluid." It acts better on that one full quart i added than it did. The old fluid is so nasty and likely so low i smelled burning before.. if the whine were to go away it would be acting perfect.

(And here i am trying to sneak fixing this guy's car. He didnt even pick up on that i added one quart, and gas. Debating.)

Its really, really hard to have someone so dumb with their car and so fargone that YOU have to sneak HELPING their car.

Also, FWIW, a previous car i had was so low it needed more than 4 more like 5 quarts of ATF added to it before it ran without a hitch. So that also leads me to believe its being so neglected (engine oil too, he refuses to TOUCH that) that the fix aside from the whine is simple.

Im not really sure what the guy's problem is, but i might end up having this car as my own. And i cant see myslef saying "no" to a free second or third car.

This is the free car i would be getting, as he is maybe going somewhere he cant have it, and that means free car for me.. No idea he would be coming over to live too. His ex beat on he car pretty well, now he doesnt want to touch it. Mmhmm.

I got word my cousin was going to be coming in with all his stuff. But this part is new to me.